Photography by Bob Montanaro

Main menu

Dinosaur Roar – Part 3 of 3

Here begins the third and final post wandering McKee Botanical Garden to see the dinosaur exhibit.

More waterlilies in a shadowy spot along the trail.
Our first look at the Bambiraptor. The raptor part is obvious for this carnivore. The Bambi part is a bit of a tale. The family that discovered the fossilized remains loved the Disney film so they gave the name “Bambi” to their discovery. An odd choice given the Bambiraptor probably lacked the true Bambi’s gentle nature.
McKee nicknamed this the “Sleeping Tree” (Common name: Toog Tree or Bischofia javanica) because it blew over during Hurricane David in 1979 and has been living its life happily lying on its side ever since.
Here is the first of two modern-day reptiles seen at the Garden. This is a Black Racer, a common non-venomous Florida snake that does a tremendous job in pest control, especially around my house.
One of my favorite dinosaurs, which turns out to not be a dinosaur at all! The carnivorous Dimetrodon (Two Shapes of Teeth) had legs positioned on the side of its body instead of underneath like other dinosaurs. This change is enough to push it out of being classified as a dinosaur. The Dimetrodon must be celebrating Christmas. Note the Christmas tree lights wrapped around the oak tree limb.
Gotta love that sail on Dimetrodon’s back, which helped regulate its body temperature more efficiently than prehistoric animals without this feature.
The second modern-day reptile seen was this Anole basking peacefully in the Sun atop this Bambiraptor’s head. The Anole seems fairly unperturbed by the association with its ancient relative.
More Bambiraptors. The second one is acting as the perch for the Anole, which can just be seen still on the raptor’s head.
The familial picture presented by these Allosaurus (Different Lizard) makes these fierce carnivores seem a bit more friendlier than they would be in real life. Additionally, the whole effect is ruined by the speaker blaring dinosaur roars strapped to the palm tree. There was nowhere else to put the speaker to keep it out-of-sight?
A close-up of one of the juveniles from the Allosaurus family group.
The Royal Palm Grove.
So ends our visit to see the Roar of the Dinosaur exhibit at McKee Botanical Garden. I miss the dinosaurs already.